SHOWNOTES
So often I hear from people who have hired virtual assistants in the past and have been unsuccessful…they are really frustrated. And honestly, I think that 90% of the time it's because of a failure to communicate expectations.
The good news is that there are very simple and effective ways to set clear (and reasonable) expectations!
In this short episode, I walk you through those steps, and share some of my best tips for communicating your expectation so that you can work in lock step with your “perfect match” virtual assistant.
Don’t miss this episode and let me know your thoughts after you listen. I always love hearing from you. If you have any questions about this episode, comment below or DM me on Instagram @jen_lehner
RESOURCES
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01.030] - Jen Lehner Hey there. At the time of this recording, it is end of July, the weather is beautiful here in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and just about everybody I know who has COVID. I hope you're not one of them. And today we're going to be talking about expectations.
[00:20.510] - Gary Vee Hey, guys, it's Gary Vaynerchuk, and you're listening to the Front Row Entrepreneur Podcast with our girl, Jen.
[00:28.970] - Jen Lehner So often I hear from people who have hired virtual assistants in the past and they have been unsuccessful. They're really frustrated. And honestly, I think that 90% of the time it's because of a failure to communicate expectations or being unclear about what their expectations are or and I see this a lot, having unrealistic expectations.
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[00:52.670] - Jen Lehner So, first of all, it's really important that we understand what our expectations are. Start here. Do you even know? I mean, you might know that things are a mess and you're drowning and you need help, but beyond that, specifically, what are your expectations? And this is a really good time to ask yourself if your expectations are realistic. So you hear me talk all the time about my rock star team, and particularly you hear me talk about Neeca, who really is like Wonder Woman, and she can create content. She's strategic, she's techy, she's really just all the things, but she wasn't always that. It took time, as it takes all of us, right, to develop into the multifaceted expert that she is today.
[01:41.470] - Jen Lehner So if you go looking for a general virtual assistant who's going to be able to be a digital marketing strategist, an SEO specialist, a blog writer, a bookkeeper, then of course you're going to be very disappointed.
[01:56.870] - Jen Lehner So it is really important that you have an understanding of exactly what it is you're looking for and what your expectations are and making sure that you're being really honest with yourself about how reasonable your expectations are. So how do you get a general virtual assistant who has promise like Neeca did, but isn't yet that expert that you're looking for? How do you get them there? Well, many of the specialties that my team possesses were all learned from online courses that I purchased for them. Usually they're really inexpensive. If you go look at udemy.com that's U-D-E-M-Y ton of courses over there, like, I'm talking $12, really good courses. The key to this, however, is that you have to really give them the space to grow and develop. So that means you aren't watching them like a hawk or docking their pay for the time that they spend learning.
[02:51.170] - Jen Lehner wantsWhen you give your virtual assistant room to grow and to learn, it really is a gift to both of you. Now, not every virtual assistant want to take on an online course or learn a new skill like Pinterest or Facebook advertising or Google Analytics, but that's a conversation you can have with your virtual assistant, maybe even before you hire them during the interview process.
[03:15.120] - Jen Lehner I see a lot of entrepreneurs who hire virtual assistants thinking that the virtual assistant is going to come in and rescue them from the clutter and the chaos. And a VA can absolutely help you do that but a VA can't do that without your lead.
[03:30.880] - Jen Lehner You have to invest some time in the front end to get your VA off to a really good start. And once you've established what your expectations are, it's really important to put in writing. I cannot stress this enough. Having weekly or even more regular meetings than that with your VA is great. I'd definitely encourage it. I talk about it all the time.
[03:53.340] - Jen Lehner But typically what happens is we chat with our VA and we're trying to build rapport and we're asking, how was your day? How was your weekend? And we have a nice chat. And then somewhere in there we mentioned, okay, now let's talk about this project, or let's talk about this campaign. These are my expectations. And everybody nods in agreement, and everybody seems to hear each other, and everybody goes on their way to get the work done, only to find out that there are some major misses.
[04:22.070] - Jen Lehner How could it be after you communicated what you thought was such a clear outline of what your expectations were for that project or that campaign, how is it possible that it got messed up or that they made so many errors? Well, guess what? We sometimes forget that people cannot read our minds.
[04:41.470] - Jen Lehner And I mean, it happens outside of work too, right? Sometimes we expect our partners or our kids to read our minds, and sometimes they let us down and they don't meet our expectations. I'm totally guilty of this. And when you're working with a virtual assistant, it's critical to get this right from the very beginning. However, if you already have a virtual assistant and a team and you haven't been so good about this, don't worry, it is not too late to change course. So, really important from the very beginning, put it in writing what your expectations are.
[05:14.770] - Jen Lehner And in addition, it's a really good idea to say this out loud from whatever you wrote down and ask your virtual assistant to repeat back to you how they interpret what your expectations are. When you first onboard your virtual assistant, there are a couple of ways of communicating your expectations. You can have a video recording that you place on your onboarding platform, and I've talked a lot about this, how we do this on Trello, but you could do this on any project platform. Or you can make sure to maybe spend the first hour of your new VA's time in your business with them.
[05:51.590] - Jen Lehner So greet them at the front door, so to speak, and have a nice chat, spend an hour, spend more, and discuss your expectations and maybe share your company values and your culture and your goals. And then the next thing you want to do is show what the metrics of success and failure look like. And I think it's really interesting because this is so different from one person to the next.
[06:18.080] - Jen Lehner So, for example, in my business, I have an expectation that my assistants will be able to get their work done with very minimal help from me. Even in the beginning, I have set things up in such a way with my systems that I feel really confident that the right VA will be able to get through a day's work with very minimal help from me. However, I've worked with people who want their VA to be shoulder to shoulder with them, figuratively speaking, of course, throughout the work day. And they would rather have the VA ask them questions throughout the day than to spend maybe a little more time trying to figure it out for themselves. So that's really just going to depend on what your expectations are.
[07:00.080] - Jen Lehner Neither of these is right or wrong. So once you have this list of what success looks like and what failure looks like, the dos and don'ts really, then now you also have a really helpful, clear document in black and white to guide you through your 30 day review, your 90 day review, your one year review, and you're just going to be so happy that you did this.
[07:22.670] - Jen Lehner Okay? So in summary, number one, know what your expectations are. Number two, ask yourself and maybe even appear. Have them look at those expectations and answer the question, are these expectations realistic? Number three, when you hire your VA, make these expectations clear from the very beginning and put them in writing. And maybe even ask your VA to repeat those expectations back to you to make sure that they have a clear understanding. And number four, on a regular basis, put your expectations in writing. So every project, every campaign, it doesn't take long ut those expectations for what success and failure looks like.
[08:05.810] - Jen Lehner Next week, we're going to talk about mindset. So so important, specifically the mindset that you need to adopt to be a successful CEO, to be successful in scaling your business with a team.
[08:19.670] - Jen Lehner Also, mark your calendar because on August 15, I'm hosting a free workshop all about hiring and training a VA. Just go to ceosecretstraining.com that Secrets with an S. And I can't wait to see you next week. Bye.
